The Mystery Blogger Award

As a blogger, some weeks are phenomenal while other weeks are less so and may involve tears, new grey hairs, burning eyes from staring at a screen, blogger’s block and late nights that bleed into early mornings. So imagine my surprise when Twitter alerts began coming through my telephone and it turned out I’d been nominated for the Mystery Blogger Award by Paulette Hamilton of www.bloginloveit.com. The creator of the Mystery Blogger Award is Okoto Enigma and you can find her gorgeous blog over at www.okotoenigmasblog.com

Paulette covers everything from food to beauty and cute cafes. In her posts, she manages to make you feel like you’re in her presence having a coffee or a matcha or sharing a meal.

The rules for the Mystery Blogger Award are:

1. Add the awards logo to your blog.
2. List the rules.
3. Thank the blogger who nominated you and link back to them.
4. Mention the award creator and link to them.
5. List 3 things about yourself.
6. Answer the questions your nominator asked.
7. Share a link to your best post/posts.
8. Nominate 10-20 people and notify them.
9.List your 5 questions for them to answer in their post.

Here’s the tricky part and that’s listing three things about myself:

I’ve always wanted to be able to write, ever since I was a little girl. Much of my childhood was spent with my nose buried in books of various kinds. My mother read to me often and she also drilled me with spelling and vocabulary exercises. That annoyed me to no end at the time but in retrospect, I now thoroughly appreciate my mother reading to me along with the word exercises she put me through.

Most days I cook, even on Fridays. There was a time when Friday came, I looked forward to ordering food. Now I’m able to make a better than decent pizza in under an hour or when we’re tired of that, I make a vegetable tart or the occasional quiche. Oh, and I don’t eat meat, ever. It’s going on eighteen years now since I made that choice and lately I’ve been making vegetable broth from scratch that I use all week as a base in my cooking.

I root for the underdog, always.

Now to answer the questions posed by Paulette and they are:

Who inspires you?

I’ve always found this to be a difficult question but I’ll say my maternal Great-Grandmother. She passed away when I was just twelve but as an adult, I often think of the fact that she never complained about anything. She simply forged ahead without faffing about and got on with things.

Why did you start your blog?

I started my blog because it was inevitable. My fascination with makeup and skin care dates back to the time of the dinosaurs and I figured it was time to dive in and see what I could put together to do something constructive with the obsession. The intention behind the blog is to draw attention to the fact that every makeup, skincare and fragrance brand has a story behind it that should be told and re-told. Brands don’t just appear, there’s usually years of effort, daring, a dash of luck and great imagination behind them.

If you were in charge of the world what changes would you make?

I’m tempted to just type the word ‘everything’ in response to this question. But the first change I would make is to nullify every government in every country of every size.

If you could travel to any part of the world where would you go? And why?

I’d go to where the Masai people live between Kenya and Tanzania. I’ve always been fascinated by the Masai people yet saddened by the fact that the world’s indigenous people remain in grave danger. It would be life-altering to see them, not as a gawker but as a way to interact with them, listen to them and learn about their history and customs.

What piece of advice would you give to someone starting a blog?

Do your homework, do your homework, do your homework. It is an incredibly time-consuming undertaking and there are numerous moving parts that need to be attended to all of the time. Blogging is fluid because technologies are constantly changing and you’ll have to do your best to keep pace. Blogging is also a business and there are frameworks you’ll be required to work through. There’s no perfect moment but if you decide to do it, whether as a hobby or potentially as a job, be prepared to have a to-do list that generally has no end.